Currently, with the rapid development of communication networks, the coverage area of networks increases continuously and high-performance network devices are continuously added to communication networks. Accordingly, the consumption of energy, particularly electric energy, by communication networks also increases continuously.
In the prior art, the energy consumption of a communication network can be reduced by using low power and low energy consumption network devices in the communication network. However, the electric power consumption of a device often increases along with the improvement of the performance of the device, and there is a small margin for reducing the energy consumption of the device without affecting the performance of the device, which cannot completely meet the requirement of operators on energy saving. Moreover, the method for reducing the energy consumption of the communication device itself requires the operator to replace existing devices on a large scale, resulting in considerable waste.
Moreover, another energy saving method exists in the prior art. In the method, power on and power off of the device are controlled according to service demands, so that the device is automatically powered off when employees are off duty, and is powered on in advance before employees go to work, thereby achieving energy saving and emission reduction. However, such a technology is not applicable to telecommunication network devices that are required to operate 7×24 hours.
Therefore, how to reduce the energy consumption of the network without affecting the performance of the device or replacing existing devices becomes an urgent task to be solved in the field of communications.